Foreseen
by flaymzofice
Summary: Her escape was her freedom, but she will find that it was part of a greater design that will take her back to where she has to be, in order to win the true freedom she has craved for eleven years.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sue if you like, I could use the experience since studying law doesn't seem to help.

**Previously on Dark Angel**

_"Well if he put all this stuff there for a reason, why couldn't he give me something useful like x-ray vision?" "Maybe he did…and it just hasn't shown_ _itself yet."_

"_It's only because she's hot."_"_What?"_"_You think we'd be creeping around dank sewers if she was ugly?"_

**Chapter 1 **

"Let me know if the situation changes," Max requested, as she strolled passed what was effectively the Communications centre, sitting pride of place in the middle of their makeshift headquarters.

Luke nodded, his eyes never leaving the six screen they had hooked up the main news channels. To his right sat another four computer screens, broadcasting live feeds of the surveillance around Terminal City. The baying crowd had returned in strength, placards growing ever bigger in calling for their blood, shouts becoming ever louder in ordering their removal from Seattle. The siege had gone on so long now Max was almost beginning to find the rumble of protests comforting in a bizarre sort of way. Obviously she didn't forget exactly why they were outside but their presence had become familiar and she had settled into the routine of their noisy demonstration every morning til night.

"Where you headed?" Alec wondered, coming through the doors from what resembled a mess hall. Clearly he wasn't only ever in there for food because for all the time he spent in the place he shouldn't look in as good physical shape as he did.

Max arched an eyebrow.

"Since when did I answer to you?" she asked with an unimpressed look.

Alec shrugged.

"Curiosity killed the cat?"

"Too bad you got even more lives than our genetic ancestor," Max threw back at him with a smirk.

At that Alec chuckled. It always threw her boyish he could be and yet one of the most accomplished soldiers in Manticore's ranks. It was frightening to an extent, just how well adjusted Alec seemed to be in any and every situation. Only on one occasion had Max ever seen another face to his cynical optimism. On any other day, he would always be on hand for the smart-aleck comments after which he was named, never betraying any sign of discomfort with his past or who he was. Unlike me, she thought to herself.

"You always leave a guy waiting?" he directed after her retreating figure.

"You stalking me now?" Max wanted to know, a hand on the door.

Alec gave her a look.

"Even if I didn't live a block away and we didn't pull heists on the same bad guys, you're technically my boss. Not exactly difficult if I wanted to."

Max arched an eyebrow before heading out the door. She stopped short, her eyes unable to believe the sight before her. She didn't notice the door close on her heels. Couldn't feel a thing but shock. She was still in Terminal City; she knew from the stench of toxic waste that mildly irritated her keen sense of smell, could hear the bustle of activity as the genetically empowered around her never stopped preparing for the war they expected on a daily basis, and the –

When was the last time she heard the movements of the transgenics over the sound of anything else? The occasions on which Max hadn't wanted to do something for sheer fear of what might happen, she could count on one hand. But she didn't want to look, to turn her head, terrified of what she might see. While she had escaped Manticore almost a decade ago, the soldier in her had never followed suit and it was that part of which forced her to turn. And for once, she rued her instinct.

It was a joke, a sick joke but a joke nonetheless. It had to be. This was too horrifying to be real. As a child of Manticore, it had never occurred to Max that anything could provoke the kind of reaction in her as when she witnessed the acts committed at its hands and in its name. The shocked disbelief she should not have been capable of at such a young age.

But what dark secrets she thought her past haunted her present with, were nothing on the row upon row of headstones now staring back at her. Instead of a crowd out for blood she found herself looking at row after row of names, carved into slabs of stone. Ordinaries. Max couldn't utter a word. She couldn't breathe. She felt beyond sick.

"Well I guess I owe you a thanks for escaping from me all those times," a voice said from somewhere above her.

Max's enhanced feline vision scoured the rooftops but found nothing. Blurring up a set of outer stairs, Max emerged on the roof of the building upon which the transgenic flag pole stood. And there, standing alongside it in his usual arrogant manner, was the figure of her nightmares.

"Look at what you'd be missing," Ames White added, waving a hand at the apparently endless headstones.

"And to think we gave you so much credit as to think we wouldn't be able to do this without getting rid of you first," he commented, smiling. It wasn't an evil smile or sadistic or satisfied. It was a perfectly normal smile. As if he had just told Max he putted a birdie on the golf course earlier.

Max was still in too much shock to speak. And even if she could, what could she say? They were dead. Thousands and probably millions more that she couldn't see. The earth groaned from the sheer weight of dead it carried. She had failed them. She had been sent to save them. Created to fight on their behalf. One purpose. And she failed. She didn't know how to fail. At Manticore, she had been one of the best. Her only failure in their eyes was her independence and her ability to see through the regime. How could she have failed now so spectacularly?

"As a token of my appreciation, I'll only make you suffer two deaths," White continued, the smile never leaving his somewhat handsome face. Max hadn't seen him remove it from inside his coat but she saw it in his hand now, cocked. With a look at her, he turned. Max followed the direction of his gaze and if she could have any more wind knocked out of her it would be with the sight of Alec being marched into view on the ground below.

She called to him but no sound came out. He saw her mouth his name but it was the look in her dark eyes that would haunt him forever as White squeezed the trigger. Max fell to her knees as she watched him collapse in the arms of the two Familiars. It only took one of them to hold his weight with ease but White no doubt wanted her to see only his head loll like a rag doll as they dragged him round the building.

For some reason, White caught her before her knees hit the concrete. She had no strength to ask any questions as he pulled her roughly to the other edge of the rooftop. And then she knew why. If she believed in souls, she knew had just felt hers die as she saw the Familiars dump Alec's lifeless body into a freshly dug pit. Alongside a hundred others. Without thinking, Max knew instinctively, those were the graves of the residents of Terminal City. She stared, not knowing what else to do.

She was alone now. Finally it had come to this. It was just her. There was no one else. No Logan. No Alec. Or OC. No family. No friends. Not even Manticore. She was well and truly alone. And that was her last thought as she suffered the last of the two deaths White had promised.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** - hopefully this clears up confusion in the first chapter (entirely intentional in case anyone wondered). Thanks for reviews guys.

Chapter 2

Alec looked up from his conversation with Mole when he heard a sharp gasp from what was unofficially Max's office. Being her, she had typically refused to take any space for herself when it was already much needed in this building. But nobody ventured in without knocking or invitation. Nobody except Alec.

"Max?" he said carefully, frowning slightly as she stared at the wall with a frighteningly blank expression. He quickly regretted saying anything as she turned that expression on him. While he would never admit it, he was more than a little creeped out at the way she seemed to be seeing through him rather than looking at him.

"Max," Alec said altogether more firmly.

Max blinked, getting to her feet. Her hair was slightly messy and there was a fading red mark on the side of her forehead. This alone was strange. Max didn't sleep. It was her thing, something to do with shark DNA. Alec cocked his head warily as Max approached him, as if seeing him for the first time and curious.

"Woah, easy," he remarked, throwing up his hands in surrender and taking an instinctive step back when she raised a hand. He was all too familiar with Max and her fists, some he undeniably earned all by himself.

But Max didn't falter as she reached out a slender hand to his face. Alec eyed it, then her as if she were crazy but didn't move when her fingers grazed his cheek.

"You alright Max?" Alec questioned, unable to help the slight teasing tone of his voice.

Her eyes softened and took on some semblance of the liveliness usually found there. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real. But it could be. If she didn't get her ass in gear and figure out what the damned symbols which continued to appear then fade on her body meant. She was the key. She had known that, for some time. But how that was supposed to help her she didn't know. Because she still hadn't figured out exactly what she was meant to do, what she was meant to save all these millions of people from, except something biblically bad, as Logan had so helpfully told her a few weeks ago.

All the dream had told her was that White and his Familiars didn't _want_ her dead. It wasn't desire fuelling their hunt for her. It was necessity. They needed her out of the way. But as far as she could tell, that could simply be a reflection of her own wishful thinking. Something to give her hope. That this wasn't a completely pointless fight.

"Promise me," Max said to him quietly. He frowned, at the strange request but more so at her odd behaviour. The Max he knew was rarely, if ever, this vulnerable seeming.

"Promise you what?"

"Promise me you'll die before you get caught," she finished simply.

Alec gave her a sideways look. But instead of a quip, remarked, "I won't get caught."

"Promise me."

And there was something in her eyes that took a hold of him. As if willing him to understand. But understand what, he didn't know.

"I promise."

Then, as if it had never happened, Max snapped back into her usualcommanding self.

"We've got work to do," going to the desk and holding up several folders.

He watched her momentarily. Then shrugged.

"What's that?" Alec asked, taking a hold of a file and flicking through it.

"A few leads Logan pulled up on Sandeman's possible whereabouts."

"Speaking of which, any new body art I should know about?"

Max rolled her eyes at him in response.

"As a second-in-command concerned for the welfare of his fearless leader it's only right I ask," Alec defended, his voice ever playful but his expression rather serious.

"Of course," she replied sarcastically, looking through a file.

"Look on the bright side, you get inked without the pain and removal without the scars. There's no down side."

Max threw him an exasperated look, before also throwing down the file.

"I'm just tired of waiting for news on what these damn things mean. I'm Manticore. I don't wait. I do."

"Manticore? The last time I remember you admitting to the fact was, oh, never," Alec commented, leaning against the desk in expectation.

"As much as I hate the place, I can't deny it made me who I am. Just because I don't love it doesn't mean I pretend it's not true."

"How Aristotle of you."

Max rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she grabbed her jacket and headed out for the door.

"Was it something I said?" Alec asked in apparent bafflement as he followed behind her with the trademark grin that only very rarely left his handsome face.

"Speak of the devil," Mole said, smoke following the words out of his mouth as he puffed on the Cuban cigar.

Max raised her eyebrows in question. She would never know it but it was a quirk of the X5s that they would ask a great many questions with their eyes before finding their voice. It was a subconscious acknowledgement of their superiority over others, being as genetically predisposed as they were. Of course, to ever suggest it in Max's presence would take a fool or a very brave man, neither of which Alec was, contrary to popular belief in either.

"Was just tellin' these kids," he answered, nodding towards the six transgenics behind him, by appearances varying in age between nine and eighteen.

They looked familiar. Max frowned, searching her memory for where she would know them from. The realisation dawned as a grin crossed her face.

"Bullet?" she asked in confirmation, looking at the second oldest.

The sandy haired boy grinned back.

"Reporting for duty ma'am."

Max rolled her eyes at that.

"What did I say?"

"To call you Max…ma'am."

He couldn't help it. He had still spent the better part of his formative years within the structure of Manticore and had not spent long enough on the outside to completely forget its ways. But Alec saw it simply as cheek, as well he would, having made it his post-Manticore mission to be a pain in the ass, especially Max's. He liked the kid more already.

"Canada no good for you guys?" she wondered, giving them all the once over, making sure there was no dramatic weight loss and the like in the time she had sent them over the border.

The girl Max had christened Fixit for her expertise in diagnostics and repair shrugged.

"This is home," she replied as if it were that simple. Alec cocked an eyebrow at that. He wouldn't ever have called TC home but now that he thought about it, he couldn't deny the familiar comfort of being with others like him, be it because their genetics were equally as superior or that he needn't worry they would mishandle a firearm.

"Well, it's good to see you all in one piece," Max remarked, ruffling Bugler's hair. He grinned but his expression dropped slightly.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"He lost his trumpet," the girl named after a boy, Ralph, replied.

Max frowned.

"Well that doesn't work for me. I'm sure we can sort something out," she assured him, earning herself another grin.

"Gem," Max called out to the auburn haired girl who herself had arrived only a few weeks ago, and whose daughter had arrived in more spectacular style.

"How's it goin'," the X5 drawled, coming over to the group.

"These kids just arrived. We got some room in building four don't we? Could you settle 'em please?"

"Sure. Let's go guys," she said to the new arrivals, leading the way.

"For a second there I thought you were gonna play happy family reunion all day," Alec commented, pulling out his keys as he got to his Suzuki.

"Jealous no one was glad to see you too?" Max tossed back lightly, revving the engine to her Ninja. The rumble drew a satisfied smile from her. Honestly, she wasn't a material girl but mess with her bike and anyone would be cat food in a second as far as she was concerned.

Alec looked at her like she'd grown a second head.

"Do you even notice the way women look at me?" like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Not unless you're suggesting I look at women, period," Max replied. Her eyes twinkled, simultaneously challenging him to take the bait and give her another excuse to hit him, and teasing all the same. Guys like Alec missed a breath at the very thought of two women in the same room let alone giving each other the eye.

Alec opened his mouth to reply but his survival instincts told him this was a lose lose situation so he wisely closed it and shrugged instead, putting the ball back in her court. Max shook her head with a roll of her eyes, taking the back route out of Terminal City.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys. Hopefully I'm not keeping you all waiting too long for these chapters; have written out more than I'm letting on but am updating on the premise that I have to have at least four chapters completed ahead so I don't get myself into that situation where I don't update because I _can't_, as opposed to I don't. I know the chapters may all seem a little disjointed but it will make sense eventually; that's the effect I'm hoping to achieve anyway!**

**Chapter 3 **

Alec cocked an eyebrow as the property came into view. Max threw him a smirk as she walked up to the formidable looking black iron gates. She knew he'd like this one. Somehow, despite having spent the better part of his life living in a cell no bigger than his current bathroom (dank though it was), Alec had managed to acquire a taste for the finer things in life. But just as he would rather not give her reason to hit him (though she rarely needed one these days it seemed to him), Max would as sooner take another round with White before encouraging his already endless chatter, by questioning him on his past.

"And you wonder why he left Joshua's place in a hurry," he commented, almost having to force himself to compliment the founder of the Manticore project. While Max sat on the fence where Sandeman was concerned, Alec outright didn't like the guy. Which was odd given that he had nothing against Manticore, when he had plenty of reason to, and no justification at all when it came to the man Joshua fondly referred to as Father. He had never even heard of the guy until he had taken the transgenic cause up in earnest.

Alec shrugged to himself. He had never claimed to be easy to understand. Or even that he ever made much sense to anyone, let alone himself.

Max nodded in mild agreement as she let herself in through a window. Security had long stopped being an issue where this vast mansion was concerned, its owner clearly having deserted it a while ago by the looks of the unkempt lawn and on the inside, dusty furniture. For all it was fancy, it was nothing new. She had, after all, amused herself on many an occasion as a part time cat burglar.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Alec wanted to know, picking up an expensive looking painting, and admiring the artist's handiwork then wondering how much he could get for it.

"Not that," Max scolded, taking the artwork from his hands and replacing it on the wall.

"Technically, it belongs to no one. Abandonment," he added off her look.

Max wrinkled her nose.

"As if you know anything about the law," she told him, her eyes sweeping the ground floor for any rooms which might look like offering her clues.

"I know how to break it," Alec reminded her offhandedly, and Max could swear she heard a hint of pride in his voice.

"I should hope so or Manticore really did waste its time on you," she offered, her pace suddenly picking up as she noticed what appeared to be a study tucked away through a spacious office.

"Is that…was that a compliment?" Alec stumbled, feigning shock, not missing a beat despite Max's abrupt movement.

But Max was too busy rummaging through the neglected papers on the mahogany desk to provide him with a response. Scanning the documents at transgenic speed told her the information on them was useless; nothing but scribblings in a language she didn't understand and letters from various insurance agencies looking to score a quick buck post-Pulse.

"Recognise this at all?" she wondered, offering Alec a sheet from the pile while she made her way through the books. He took a closer look than she did and consequently, was able to make out a very subtle familiarity she had missed.

"You mean you don't read ancient Minoan?"

Max looked up at him.

"Nah me neither," he answered offhandedly, shaking his head.

"Ancient Minoan is what's turning me into a walking canvass. That's not it," Max said resolutely.

"It's the grand daddy," Alec replied, assuming a deliberately patronising voice that he had noticed something she hadn't.

Max rolled her eyes. It was an action she had used effectively one time but then she met Alec and its meaning had become something more redundant, it being employed several hundred times a day she was sure, because that was how often she felt like beating him to a pulp.

She chose to say, but more importantly, do nothing, as she surveyed the room with trained eyes. She was missing something, she knew it.

"We should probably take with, maybe your boyfriend can figure out what it means," Alec suggested, waiting for the 'we're not like that' line she had spun on him so often he wondered if she was ever going to make a new recording. It didn't come so he turned, only to find Max listening to the walls.

"How is a wall more interesting than me?" he almost yelped (although transgenics did not yelp so it was more of an incredulous protest), more for his own pride soothing benefit than in expectation of a reply. He rolled his eyes at himself.

"Max?"

She didn't reply as she placed a fist on the wall she had just been inspecting closely. Before he could utter another word, her fist had disappeared into the wooden oak panelling. Alec nodded as if he had conceded a point, the corners of his mouth pulling downwards in acknowledgement.

"You've got issues. Okay."

Max looked at him as if wondering why she bothered. He shot her a deliberately bright grin in return. It became a look of realisation as she pulled out a heavy looking safe. Leaning against the cold metal, Max turned the dial according to the clicks no human could possibly hear.

"Got it," she said to no one in particular as the door sounded open. She still had it.

"Well since you seem –"

Alec didn't get to finish his sentence when Max's gloved hand clamped down on his mouth. He shot her an suggestive look, purposely pushing her buttons, before his ears picked up what she had already heard.

He nodded as she went to empty the contents of the safe into her backpack whilst he went to the door of the office, trying to establish amateur from professional in the weight and pattern of movement. It seemed obvious to him that it was a someone as opposed to a random creaky floorboard. It was simply a matter of discerning whom. Of course, given a choice in the matter, he would rather it wasn't what his vision confirmed it was.

"We gotta go," Alec deadpanned, his voice so low only she would have heard. She threw him a look. How she managed to fit so many emotions into one expression he would never know. Contempt, exasperation, frustration and pure surrender, all in one.

He realised though that now was not the time to ponder the art behind such emotive eyes as she joined him at the door and considered all their escape options.

She did not want to risk the information they had just found, if at all possible. At this point, they had no idea whether it was completely useless or the key to all the locked doors. And she would be damned if she didn't find out which it was.

Visual had shown at least five Familiars in the foyer. The office was towards the back of the house but that didn't give them much time, as Max silently cursed Sandeman for not having his office at least one floor up. She could hear what sounded like two sets of footsteps approaching their direction. The window, as their luck would have it, could not face the door more if it tried which meant they would have bullets in their backs before they knew what had hit them if they were caught mid-escape.

Still, retreating back into the study would rule out even a window route since Manticore's founding father had supposedly been a little bit keen on physical security, the window a pane of reinforced bullet proof glass with no access. Meaning no crashing through it in a last ditch effort for their lives even if they wanted to.

She turned to Alec, intending to tell him that they would have to risk the window and then hope they were fast enough to beat the gunfire in the run for their bikes. Which, thanks to the property's impossibly long drive, were at least a sixty second dash and a seventeen foot iron gate leap away. Not that this was a problem but when guns were involved, Max felt about as genetically empowered as an Ordinary. Manticore had forgotten to make them bullet proof, much to her chagrin.

But Alec was already sliding the window open and casting her an impatient look. She was out in a second, not wasting time on her exasperation at his impulsiveness. Apparently she had waited a second too long in deciding how best to escape however, because bullets followed Alec out the window.

"Go!" he shouted, her only evidence of him not being hit in the process.

More shots were heard, together with angry shouts as they blurred across the front lawn. They cursed under their breaths when they had realised they would have to go back round to the front of the house and could only offer prayers to the Heavens that the Familiars had been careless enough not to leave too many people on watch.

Despite their previous lack of belief in the spiritual, their prayers seemed to be answered as Alec's fist connected with the jaw of a Familiar caught off guard at their sheer speed, it also being the force knocking him out cold rather than just knocking him over. The others had been sent into the expansive property and had ventured in far enough to buy the two transgenics a twenty second head start before they came rushing out.

Max and Alec were slowed by having to take evasive measures however, as more gunfire echoed in their inaudible footsteps. But not slow enough to stop them soaring over the mighty gate and sideways into the trees which stood as decorative guards to the estate.

"Open the gates!" they heard a familiar and angry voice scream.

But by that point, they were already speeding home. Leaving Ames White fuming and the old fir in the centre of the front lawn to bear the brunt of his anger as he tore a hole in it with a resounding thud of a punch.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry to keep you all waiting so long; this wasn't according to plan - computer issues and those waiting for the update at NWP will have to wait even longer because a different set of computer issues have yet to be solved. In the mean time, here's the next chapter. Feedback welcome but not essential. Thanks for your patience.**

**Chapter 4 **

"Max?" Logan repeated, but she still hadn't heard him. He waved a hand in front of her.

"Sorry, what?" she said, blinking suddenly.

"You okay?"

Max frowned, still a little lost in her thoughts.

"Yeah, fine. Sorry, got a little distracted," she laughed off but stopped almost as quickly. Logan was one of the few people around whom the mask could be slipped off for a break, albeit a brief one. The people of TC expected their leader to do just that and she could not afford to let them see anything but the officer that, as an X5, she was born to be.

She couldn't blame them for forgetting that while her DNA said otherwise on any number of strands, some percentage of her cocktail was human. And having spent as long on the outside as she had, despite her best efforts Max had succumbed in part to those very traits which defined her as such.

The consequential magnitude of setting off Operation Pale Face had hit her not long after, when the number of suspicious incidents involving Manticore's escaped operatives had amounted to a figure even she couldn't ignore. The day had yet to come when she regretted it but whenever she came close to thinking along such lines, it was always Logan who assured her she had done the right thing.

His justice seeking self wouldn't allow his feelings for her to cloud his judgement. Even though he thought she was different from them, that she could easily lead the life of an Ordinary without the burden of their leadership, Logan couldn't deny them their right to her. Or her obligation to them.

While what Manticore did was wrong and condemned on every level in his eyes, Max had still made a conscious decision, not as thoroughly thought out as he would have liked, but a conscious decision nonetheless when she had completed the Eyes Only streaming video which had exposed the facility. To that end, she was responsible for removing them from the cruel and unimaginably punishing system. Responsible for their freedom.

But she was also responsible for removing them from the only routine they had known their whole lives. From the only discipline and thinking that governed their very existence. From the easy, if morally reprehensible, life of following orders, into a world of chaos and corruption. A world which knew no rules after the Pulse. Any state outside the thousand mile radius of the hit area might have seen the chances of societal integration increased somewhat. But that wasn't the terms of this game.

Love her as he might, Logan Cale was first a righteous man. Which was probably why he and Alec got on so well. Or not as the case may be.

"Max," he said expectantly.

Max looked at him as if searching for answers to all the questions silently floating around in her head, unwilling to give them voice.

"Let's go for a ride," she suggested suddenly. It threw him a little if he was honest. That was probably the last thing he had expected her to say. He frowned in question.

Max wrinkled her nose as she tossed the napkin onto the table.

"Come on," she said, not offering any sort of explanation.

"I gotta work on those papers you guys brought back earlier," Logan replied, hoping it would nudge her towards some sort of explanation, be it for exactly what had happened earlier or for her odd behaviour tonight.

He heard her sigh.

"Talk to me," he encouraged gently, leaning back in his chair.

Again a sigh, this time one of frustration.

"About what? I could either be here all night or out the door in fifteen seconds. There's no summary or any short cuts. Just like this whole saga. Sometimes, I wonder if I would have done what I did if I'da known it was going to go so global," Max replied sharply.

"You would have," Logan assured her, not needing a second to consider his words.

Max gave him an inquisitive look. Logan held her gaze before getting to his feet to clear the plates away.

"I know you," was his simply explanation.

She frowned. Like that made everything clear to her.

"And?"

Logan looked up at her from the island counter in his kitchen.

"The guys in Terminal City don't follow your orders and take your word as final because they see as a superior officer. Mole doesn't back down because he always thinks you're right. And we both know Alec doesn't honestly buy your threats of physical damage."

Max crossed her arms, waiting.

"They all do what they do because they look at you and see that you care. They know you won't take second best for them. Because even though you made a life for yourself and could just as easily pretend you aren't one of them, they know you know you are."

"So?" she threw back defiantly.

"So?" Logan repeated, coming round to face her.

"So you care too much to regret your actions. To go back in time and change history even if you had the chance. Admit it, you wouldn't even trade back Alec if you could," he added with a grin, attempting to diffuse the mood slightly.

Max allowed a small smile to tug at the corners of her mouth.

"He has his uses in his own pain in the ass ways," she acknowledged with a shrug.

"Face it, you're just too stubborn to not give a damn," Logan told her.

Her eyes met his in earnest.

"Thanks. You're a good friend," Max remarked with sincerity. Logan paused.

"Max –"

But she had already seen it. The glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Logan," she reprimanded briefly.

"Just –"

Max took a step back.

"Just because there was never actually anything between me and Alec doesn't mean the reason behind my lie goes away."

"We'll figure something out for this virus –"

"Is that all you think it's about?"

Logan looked at her. It had been such an obvious issue for such a while now that he had honestly never considered any other possibilities.

"You said Alec had been selfish to let Rachel be dragged into the collateral on the Berrisford assignment. That she didn't know better and he should have. But you do. Did you ever think that the selfish one here isn't me for running away at the first sign of trouble? That maybe the one who's selfish is you?"

"What?"

"You remember how you felt when you thought I'd died, even though you didn't believe it? Add guilt to that for it being your fault. Only it wasn't. So you can only imagine. But I got blood on my hands Logan. And I carry the guilt of every single person I've killed. How am I supposed to figure out this big Breeding Cult plan and be the person I need to be for that, if I have to live with your death on me as well?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Logan replied determinedly.

Max shook her head. Either he was being stupid or he was refusing to admit what she had a long time ago.

"I don't want to lose you as a friend but if I have to, I will pretend I never knew you. If that's what it takes to keep you safe. Because obviously you're too selfish to look after yourself."

"I may not be a highly trained genetically engineered super soldier but I'm also not a child. I can sort myself out. And you call me selfish? Max, you're the one shutting me out so you don't have to worry about a guilt trip," he shot back, knowing the last part was a low blow.

He wasn't selfish. He could see exactly where she was coming from. And he knew, in her shoes, he would do exactly the same thing. But if he didn't at least try, he would be just like her. Unable to forgive himself.

Max refused to justify his last comment with a response so she stood in silence. Walking out would have been the best option but now that the tin had been opened, it might as well be dealt with in one go.

"To be honest, I don't see how being friends and being together makes any difference. Do you care less?" he wondered.

"I won't let you be a target. As a friend, I only have to worry about you the same as everyone else." It was just that simple. Just that superficial.

The finality in her tone of voice told him this conversation was over. He knew there was nothing else he could say to convince her he didn't care. Because that was her point. He would be selfish if he didn't care how she felt in the likely event, given the circumstances, of him dying and the blame lying at her feet.

And he should have known her well enough by now to know that, even if it couldn't have been any further from her fault if it had tried, Max would find some way to put it on her conscience. Logan smiled to himself at that. At the end of the day, it wasn't the virus or him being human that defeated them. It was her overwhelming sense of duty.

So even though it cut his very being to say so, he said what he knew she desperately wanted to hear from him.

"Friends?"

The smile alone was worth the pieces of his heart.

"Friends," she agreed, going to his arms, painfully cautious to put their clothing between them.

"I'm always here," he whispered, careful not to lean into her hair no matter how right it would feel. She heard the dozens of meanings behind those words.

"Thanks," Max smiled, pulling back, before letting herself out.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, especially those of you who are following the story so patiently. Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy - feel free to leave criticisms of what you don't like, as well as what you do; criticisms help me to improve!**

**Chapter 5 **

"You might as well hand the money over now pal," Alec smirked, holding his hand out to Mole who merely grunted in reply.

"Ah come on buddy, you can't help being second best," Alec continued, his voice betraying his desire to laugh at how miserably wrong Mole had been to bet against the X6. "Who knew looks could be deceiving?" he added.

"Shut up," the reptilian transhuman growled, counting out the bills as his fellow aesthetically challenged peer limped over to a bench.

"This is what you do for fun now?" a familiar voice asked. But it was the marked tone of disapproval that gave her away.

"Hey! Max, how nice of you to join us," Alec commented, clearly having been caught off guard. Despite his heightened senses, he knew he wouldn't have heard Max coming if she didn't want to be. Didn't mean he had to like being sneaked up on.

"Wish I could say the same. Any news?"

"Dix is looking into some possible transgenic related thefts and break-ins," he told her, eyeing the next two TC residents facing off against each other.

It was good-natured tussling that served to keep them all on their toes somewhat, as well as giving them an outlet for their frustration, otherwise Max would have opposed it with more gusto. She appreciated that the waiting game did not suit their action ready ways, and couldn't bring herself to deny them this. After all, their freedom from Manticore had amounted to a daily fight for survival in a broken world that hunted them. At least at one time, they had been safe from that.

Max nodded.

"Page if you need me," she instructed, heading for the door.

"Sure," Alec murmured, watching her with a frown as she walked away.

"Twenty says Ash wipes the floor with him," Mole offered, looking at him.

Alec looked at him sadly.

"Not a chance. Lucky for you, I got enough of your money to last me a couple rounds tonight," he grinned, clapping a disgruntled Mole on the back before leaving.

Max was nowhere to be seen by the time he got outside but he had some pretty good ideas where he might find her. There were very few places for Max to go these days. Having her face plastered all over every news channel in America as the leader of a freak nation had that limiting affect on a girl's social hang outs. But even if she could, Alec doubted Max would consider taking time off for herself, just to chill with her friends, to drink cheap beer and kick everyone's ass at pool. Except his of course. For all she got on his back about his somewhat loose morals, Alec acknowledged that someone had to. And given the givens, he much preferred it to be her.

The walk to her place didn't take long. Why he thought she'd be there and not on top of the Space Needle, he didn't know. It was where she usually went when she was troubled. Something about the view, though he often sensed it was more the symbolic, though perhaps more literal in some respects, act of watching over her city.

Alec frowned as he neared her front door. The unmistakable sound of something being hit could be heard as his pace slowed, making out the environment by ear. Any other person would probably have charged into the apartment, guns ablazing in an attempt to save the day. The way Alec saw it though, it was either very good or very bad. Either the fight was so one way, Max would be getting bored soon, or she had already been beaten to a pulp. So obviously, there was no need for the blazing guns.

"I hope that's not my face you're using for visual targeting," Alec remarked dryly, leaning against the kitchen counter.

Max spun. She had been so lost in giving the punch bag hell that she had done the first thing a good transgenic never would: be caught unawares.

"What are you doing here?" she asked sharply.

Alec shrugged, taking a look in her fridge.

"No beer? What kind of a soldier are you?" he asked, clearly unimpressed.

"The good kind?" Max ventured. His random comments never ceased to catch her completely off guard. There was no such animal as a situation too inappropriate to stop Alec cracking one of his infamous lines.

He pulled a face.

"Whatever."

"So tell me again, because I missed it the first time, why are you here?" Max wanted to know as he made himself comfortable on her couch.

"What, so now I can't even pay my hard hitting leader a little friendly visit?" he asked, as if offended.

Max didn't bother with a reply.

"Okay, okay, I admit it."

Max continued to wait. She didn't like to waste her breath since Alec could quite happily talk at her for days on end if she let him. She didn't really see the point in speaking if he didn't need to be prompted.

"I think I'm sick."

Though she saw straight through him, she managed a humourless, "what?"

"I helped this little old lady across the road yesterday. And you weren't even there to make me do it," he said resignedly, as if accepting news that he had a terminal illness.

Max rolled her eyes and walked over to him. Alec watched her wearily, acutely aware of her tendency to physically attack him.

"Well, that's new," he commented, looking down at her hand on his arm.

She leaned towards him, pausing for effect.

"Out."

Alec frowned in mock disappointment as she pulled him roughly to his feet and led him firmly to the door.

Seeing he wasn't getting anywhere, Alec let out a breath as he shrugged himself free of her grip.

"Look, I need your help."

His serious tone of voice got her attention. She regarded him expectantly.

"Grab a jacket," he ordered, heading out the door.

"Where we going?" Max asked, not moving.

Alec turned to look at her.

"Do you always ask this many questions?"

Max frowned in surprise.

"One question."

He rolled his eyes before turning. Max eyed his retreating figure. She didn't have anything else planned for the evening. She might as well.

A brief bike ride later and they were face to face with the outer wall of an apartment block in sector four.

"You need help breaking into someone's apartment?" Max asked contemptuously, scaling the brickwork with all the agility of the cat she part was.

"Do you want to say that any louder?" Alec hissed back, lithely making the small jump onto the balcony.

"Well –"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence because Alec had clapped a hand over her mouth. It was more the surprise that he was so bold as to do so rather than the act itself which shut her up.

She was about to start speaking again since there was obviously no one at home right now when she saw the light blue glow behind a wall setting the dining and living area apart.

"You broke in to borrow the computer and you're not even doing anything illegal?" Alec asked, disapproval in his voice. The dark haired boy of no more than sixteen spun in the chair to find Alec standing over him, arms crossed. Max was behind him, her eyes on the screen.

The teenager jumped to his feet in salute when he caught sight of her. Max glanced at Alec before addressing the boy.

"Apparently you know who I am. Who are you?"

"My designation is X7-283 Ma'am."

"At ease soldier. What are you doing?" she asked, nodding at the various windows pulled up on the monitor. She had met enough new transgenics recently to know it was useless to attempt to modify their behaviour right away.

"Attempting to procure information concerning the location of the new Manticore facility Ma'am."

Alec cocked his head.

"Explain."

"Last week I received unconfirmed reports of a high security research laboratory forty clicks from the original site. It is registered as a nuclear waste disposal site but confidential government databases record it as continuing with work completed at a previous location. I'm still developing intelligence but so far it seems the research concerns gene splicing and DNA experimentation, Sir."

"So you've spent the last week breaking into people's homes just so you could use their internet to look this up?" Alec asked, not really believing what he was hearing.

"Yes Sir."

"Why didn't you just use an internet café?"

Max looked at him but she couldn't help but wonder the same thing.

"Following the Jam Pony incident three weeks ago I knew there was a high risk of exposure."

Alec shrugged. Smart kid.

"Why didn't you just come over to Terminal City with the rest of us?" Max asked.

The boy frowned as if she had just asked him if the earth was round.

"It's already a target. I would be walking into a dead end." He had a point.

"But it's safer. We have to stick together," Max said, the words she had spoken in the rousing speech which had dissuaded everyone from going to ground and scattering only a few weeks earlier, echoing once more.

"Yes Ma'am."

Alec frowned. He had crossed paths with a lot of transgenics since the Terminal City siege began. New ones were arriving every day, preferring to be with others of their kind and risk exposure than to hide out alone. But none had retained their soldier training as well as this kid had. The way he spoke was almost as if he had escaped from a burning Manticore yesterday. Not something more like a few months ago.

"What Unit were you in?" he asked suddenly.

"Recon and intelligence Sir."

Well that made a bit more sense. Manticore could exactly risk its sensitive information being leaked within its own officer ranks let alone among the soldiers. Recon and intelligence Units would have been as good as classified information in themselves. Knowing Manticore, it would have kept them on a very tight leash.

"And I'm sure you were pretty good at it. But this isn't Manticore. We're not gonna send you off to psy-ops if you have an attitude. Chill out," Alec advised.

"Yes Sir."

"And enough with the 'yes sir, no sir' business," Max added, seeing as how Alec had got the ball rolling anyway.

"Yes Ma'am," the X7 nodded.

Alec grinned at her.

"Technically, he didn't say anything wrong."

"Shut up."

To the boy she said, "right, from now on, we're gonna call you Gates, as in Bill, since you seem to know your way around a computer pretty well. He's Alec and I'm Max. And we're getting outta here before whoever lives here decide they want to come home."

"Are we going to the new Manticore?"

"What was that I said earlier?"

"That we have to stick together," the teenager now called Gates replied after a brief hesitation to find the right reference point.

"Right. So we're headed to Terminal City."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Going with the character development over plot progression here in case anybody thinks this whole chapter is completely irrelevant. At least, that's what I think I was going for when I wrote it...thanks for your patience; it's taken longer than I intended or indeed, desired, to get this chapter published. Hope it's up to scratch

**Chapter 6 **

"Well if I'd known what the kid was doing I wouldn't have dragged you along," Alec commented lightly as they left the headquarters for the second time that evening.

"What did you think he was doing?"

"Breaking and entering for the hell of it? What, like you've never done it before," he added off her look.

"Actually I haven't, not for the hell of it."

Alec rolled his eyes.

"And what do you mean you wouldn't have dragged me along if you'd known? You say it like you would have gone back."

He shrugged.

"Maybe."

Max stopped.

"What?"

"What?"

"You would have gone back?" Max asked almost in disbelief.

After everything that had happened, he'd go there again? But when had Alec really taken a stand against Manticore? she thought to herself. He was fighting for the transgenic cause but really, did he have that much choice? She knew he could just as happily make a life for himself and fit right in with his charismatic ways but he had chosen the life he led now, hadn't he? He had opted to fight for his right to himself, free of the persecution of the Ordinaries. Hadn't he? Or had it been something like the lesser of two evils kind of choice?

Alec stopped a few steps in front of her.

"Why not?" he shot back without thinking. He wasn't sure what had prompted him into such a rash reply. To provoke her and antagonise her, or an accidental slip of his true thoughts on the matter? Alec was going to rue that comment and he knew it.

"Why not? Alec, you would have been sent straight to psy-ops for that. Freedom? To live, to choose, any of those ring a bell?" she asked incredulously.

"Free to hide?" Alec wondered. Why he couldn't just hold his tongue and let this drop rather than encourage her to pursue it further, he didn't know. Maybe he and Ben were as twisted as each other after all, he was just more subtle about it.

"That's why we're here. We're fighting. Taking a stand."

"I said it before I'll say it again. I don't see how it was so bad. Food wasn't bad and you had roof over your head. So we had to lie to a few people and maybe break a few necks but at least it was their necks and not ours on the line."

Max looked at him like he had grown another head. Did he really just say that? To kill or be killed? That was his attitude? It didn't make sense. Surely if that was how he saw things then he wouldn't be side by side with her in the transgenic fight for freedom? But then she wondered why the possibility of Alec having that perspective shocked her so much. After all, leopards don't change their spots, what was to make her think Alec wasn't the completely unreliable jerk he had been since day one?

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, you always were right at home in murder city. Was it the satisfaction from their blood running down the blade of your knife or the sound of their neck snapping? Or maybe it was knowing that they didn't stand a chance against a highly trained genetically engineered killing machine," she spat, disgust in her voice.

She was angry. Not with Alec but herself. At what point had she thought Alec had changed, that she even knew him well enough to be capable of such a judgement? When did she let her guard down and come to expect things of him? To allow herself to be disappointed?

Alec frowned. That was almost completely out of the blue. But it didn't evoke any sort of emotional reaction from him. He wouldn't have been the highly regarded assassin that he was if he strung his feelings that loose.

He hadn't intended on getting into all this heavy duty stuff. It had started as a light-hearted joke. But the more he was forced to defend his comment, the more Alec found the idea of returning not so traitorous.

"Don't you ever get tired of this Max? Don't you ever wonder when it's all gonna end? Sure the idea of being on the right side of the law for once appeals to me but aren't you ever sick of the way people look at you like you're some sort of infectious disease? Don't get me wrong, being a freak, I can live with that. But being told I'll contaminate the gene pool? I mean, aside from the fact that they actually think I'll lower myself to that level."

Max considered him.

"Honestly? Yeah, I get sick and tired of this waiting game. Of not knowing how this is going to end, if ever. Because it does seem like it'll go on for a pretty damn long time. But I didn't escape from that place and lose most of my family down the line, just so I could go back."

Alec looked at her. And it dawned on him that for once, she wasn't running. She had said the words defiantly enough in that rather inspiring speech she had made a few weeks ago about standing firm, but she really was sticking by her guns this time.

He never really gave it much thought but a lot of the X5s had harboured a lot of resentment towards her after the escape. He supposed he was the same. After all, if her Unit hadn't broken out, his clone Ben would probably never have had the chance to go all psychotic killer. Which meant Alec wouldn't have had to be dragged in for evaluation for six months.

Even in light of that chilling memory though, Alec didn't find himself hating Max or resenting her. She had done what she thought was right. Self-preservation had been bred into them from a young age, as with a great many other things. And if she thought getting out was the only way to do that then he couldn't exactly tell her she was wrong. She had been selfish in not considering what her escape would mean for the ones she left behind but as an eleven year old child, no, soldier – however super – what was she going to do, try to single-handedly break every one of the six hundred and eighty eight others out?

In moments of weakness, he was sorely tempted to lash out and shove her face in her own idealistic preaching. She could go on all she wanted about his immoral and inconsiderate ways but he knew he could just as easily remind her of her own indiscretions. While he knew she never intended to, Max could be unbelievably self righteous when she was lecturing him on his latest misadventure which had naturally resulted in her saving his ass. Again.

Yet he never dragged her name through the mud in his self defence. He didn't know why. God knows he had plenty enough opportunity and self preserving pride to do so.

When it came to it though, Max hadn't run from her responsibility towards the residents of Terminal City. She hadn't put herself before their safety. She hadn't turned her back on them the way she had turned her back on a great deal else. Logan for starters.

Obviously Alec thought it was a bad idea but the way she treat Logan, he honestly felt bad for the poor guy. Like rolling around in a wheelchair wasn't bad enough. Then there was the time she had tried to skip town when she thought her life in Seattle had gone a little sideways. Only to get herself kidnapped by her clone.

He knew why she did it. Why she ran. Pushed people away. It was inherent in their super soldier characters to shut everyone out. It was the only way to keep them safe. He had learned that the hard way too. But unlike Max, he only had to suffer one risk gone bad. She was playing with fire with the number of friendships she had forged. She had so much to lose. And that was the price she had paid for escaping. She was free from the controlling order of Manticore but she had discovered that she was not free from herself.

"Max, this is me. I was wheelin' and dealin' even back then. Do you really think I'd go back just so I'd have to do it more carefully?"

Her gaze bored into him.

"Okay fine. Maybe your self-made duty to these people gets you up in the morning. But I'm not gonna deny I'll sleep better knowing there's an alternative to all this crap. Because at the end of the day, Manticore might have made us do things we probably wouldn't choose to, but no one is gonna have our backs the way that place did. Sure its reasons are a little off base even for my morally challenged self but nobody's perfect."

"So you entertain the thought of going back because you need a safety blanket?" Max put to him, leaving the incredulity out of her voice.

Alec looked away, considering the suggestion. After a brief pause he nodded with a shrug.

"Guess so."

Max envied his ability to be so frank. Even if she wasn't spearheading a campaign for transgenic freedom, it had never been in her nature to lay things on the line the way he sometimes did. Not that what he had just admitted to was exactly a milestone revelation but her need to protect herself would never allow for even that kind of submission.

"So when the going gets tough…er," she added in after thought, "you're gonna bail? You're gonna desert this cause and go home?"

Alec stared at her blankly.

"This is home."

Max frowned. Now she was completely lost. She had liked to think she was accustomed to Alec's idiosyncratic ways, his logic that completely defied logic. But now, she was well and truly at her wit's end in following his thought process.

"Something about not knowing what each new day will bring. Kinda reminds me of Manticore," he replied with false sentimentality, but wearing his defining grin.

Max regarded him. She had long given up trying to discern his real thoughts; a good soldier knew when a cause was lost and she had realised some time ago that the secret to uncovering him was not through reading his eyes. Because they were unfathomable to her. It bugged her to no end that he knew it but as enhanced as she was, she wasn't psychic.

"I can't believe we're standing here discussing your dishonourable intentions and all, instead of going over how this new Manticore changes things. Trust you to make it all about Alec," she said finally, shaking her head disdainfully.

"Hey, you got some Max in there too," he shot back, only mildly offended, "'sides, this 'new Manticore' doesn't change anything as far as I'm concerned."

"How can you say that? Do you really think they won't come looking for their precious billion dollar bioweapons systems?"

Alec stopped. He cocked his head then shrugged.

"Point taken."

Max rolled her eyes.

"You mean I've been working all these side deals to make ends meet when I could just put myself on the market and be set for a dozen lifetimes?" he asked, the other side of his brain that was tuned in only to money, suddenly switching on. Max stared.

"Well if you think –"

"Which clearly you don't," she interrupted.

"Clearly," he humoured before continuing, "look, if Manticore's up and running, it's up and running. As great as we are, we haven't got the resources to go take it down again. Not with the media and White on our backs. I'm sure they're gonna come collectin', but until then, we gotta bigger issues to figure out."

Max said nothing. Alec let out a breath.

"Like I said, if I'd known what the kid was up to, I wouldn't have taken you with me."

Max scowled at him. She hated conceding to him. In her opinion, it only succeeded in stoking his already too big ego. So she simply turned to continue on her way before realising she didn't actually know where she was going.

They were in the car park where freak nation was born. It was one of those extremely rare occasions where Max didn't have any pressing matters to handle, no supplies to get, no heists to pull, no missing transgenics to rescue. Of course, the ever present issue of exactly how to get out of the current siege stand off hadn't made itself scarce, but it was one in the morning and that wasn't going to be resolved any time in the next few hours. What was she going to do with herself until then?

Alec saw her hesitation, regarding her with those dancing hazel green eyes.

"Lost?" he ventured playfully, hands in pockets.

Max looked at him, eyes narrowing at his unfunny joke. Then the realisation hit her. He hadn't known what he would find when they had gone to get Gates earlier and bring him into the fold. And he hadn't exactly needed her help either since he seemed to be aware that the boy was no threat.

He had invited her along for the ride just to distract her from worrying about everything. He had seen her troubled expression earlier, had sensed her anxiety and had been the friend he figured she would need.

"Thanks."

Alec raised an eyebrow in question.

"You know what for," she answered, pressing her lips together pointedly.

Alec shrugged, glancing at his feet.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Part payment for all those times you saved my ass."

"Well that's very touching 494," a chillingly familiar voice echoed.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: These chapters seem more random and less forward moving every time I post them. Thankfully, I'm moving back home from university living today so will have time to work on the little things I'm finding annoying – good timing too because this is the last chapter that I am remotely pleased with! Hope it's up to scratch. Reviews welcome! (sorry, this one's pretty short compared to the others)**

**Chapter 7 **

Max spun, taking a few instinctive steps back. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Manticore was recruiting sooner than they thought.

"Renfro."

Even if she believed in ghosts, Max knew the figure standing only a few feet away, partially hidden in shadow, was too solid to be incorporeal. Besides, she was a walking testament to the advances of science. Still, that didn't stop her uttering what sounded stupid in her mind and even more so the moment the words left her lips.

"But…you're dead."

"Apparently not Max," Alec muttered beside her.

"Well if you two aren't quite the perceptive pair," their former Director commented wryly.

"How did you get out?" Max wondered.

"Does it matter?"

"Well yeah, I'd like to get me a few of whatever saved you from a bullet to the abdomen and a burning locked down Manticore," Max responded glibly, regaining her usual sense of daring in the face of potentially dangerous situations.

"I see you completely disregarded my final piece of advice."

Max tilted her head.

"Sandeman's good at hide and seek."

Alec turned to her questioningly.

"How does she know about Sandeman?"

Max shrugged without looking at him.

"Go ahead Renfro, I've been wondering that myself."

"He founded Manticore. Of course I know about Sandeman."

Max narrowed her eyes, thinking back to what White's brother CJ had said once.

"See, that's not what I heard. Seems Sandeman only came to Manticore after the government took over."

The white haired woman took a step forward, her head cocked and an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"You have wasted your time over the past three months and now you waste mine. I didn't come back from the dead to answer your irrelevant questions. You're coming back now."

Max raised an eyebrow.

"Lady, you must've hit your head on something on the way back if you think I'm going anywhere with you."

At that, five armed Ordinaries and four transgenics stepped forward. Max vaguely recognised their faces from a shared childhood.

"Deep cover operatives," Renfro explained by way of introduction.

The corners of Max's mouth tugged down in acknowledgement, nodding.

"X5s?" she pondered aloud.

Renfro's silence was her answer.

"Terminal City has two hundred and three of its own."

Renfro smiled.

"I told them you wouldn't come. They said I wasn't here to collect."

Alec turned his head slightly.

"I'm here to get a status check."

He suppressed a laugh and was lucky not to cough.

"Being put in the field now? Demoted much?"

Renfro ignored his remarks.

"So you failed to locate Sandeman, managed to get one of your own killed in a stupid incident which succeeded in exposing you all to the public and are now sitting ducks waiting for them to accept you."

She shook her head in disappointment.

"And to think we have such high hopes for you."

"Have…" Max repeated before everything fell into place. How she hadn't put it all together before she would never know especially now it seemed so glaringly obvious.

"You're with Sandeman's break away branch of the Breeding Cult," she breathed, almost accusingly. Alec looked at Max, then Renfro, the pieces falling together for him. He nodded appreciatively for not having to figure that one out for himself.

"Being on the outside has slowed you considerably it seems," Renfro commented with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"What do you want from me?"

Renfro tilted her head once more.

"I don't see how that's relevant seeing as how you won't give it to me."

Max frowned. Since when had Renfro been this forgiving in not getting what she wanted? She was an individual so strong willed and ruthless in justifying her means with her end that even Lydecker was wary of her.

Alec filled the silence between the two women.

"Question, how come Max gets to be the special no junk DNA super soldier. Thought Manticore created all folk equal."

At that Renfro let out a short laugh.

"I don't get, you don't get," she replied simply.

"And that survivor's guilt you tried so hard to run away from ten years ago? Are you ready for round two?" Renfro directed cryptically at Max before turning on her heels and fading into the shadows.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This has taken way longer than expected. I know I said updates would be quicker once I got all my stuff back in one place but now I have hit the much resented problem of plot stuck-ness. I was writing, then had to go somewhere for some reason and went back to it only to completely have forgotten where I was taking the story with that particular build of plot. Grr! Anyways, I've adapted. So, hopefully, we're back in action. Short chapter, but let me know what you think.**

**Chapter 8 **

"Besides the chances of us pulling one over 'em being pretty slim, someone remind me again why we don't just take the game to these snake shippers?" Mole wondered as they stood round the collection of screens on different channels broadcasting the same piece against transgenics.

It was old footage of Ames White's testifying against the Government, the moment the Manticore project was blown wide open on national television. It was being replayed as part of a report that White had now made chair of a committee seeking a solution to the transgenic problem.

"Apparently they don't punish whistle blowers these days," Alec remarked dryly.

"Actually they do," came a familiar but recently unheard voice.

They turned to find Logan standing at the foot of the Communications platform.

"The Government had White removed from the Agency and he was down for a court martial –"

"But he's not military," Max interjected, "I thought he was just a suit heading up the transgenic recruitment drive post-Manticore."

"Navy," Logan informed her, "before moving onto bigger and better things."

He glanced down at the file in his hand.

"White was never going to see the inside of a court room though; he's got friends in high places. Senator McKinley finally got his way. White's been given his own team."

"A little crude for a politician isn't it?" Alec wondered.

Logan only shrugged.

"Yes and no. The enlightened among us obviously know that the solution they're referring to only means one thing. To everyone else, it's an influential figure of authority finally doing something about the perceived transgenic threat."

"Wrong again," a young voice drawled. All eyes turned to find Dalton sitting atop a desk a little behind Logan.

"What do you mean?" Logan asked, puzzled that a sixteen year old could possibly have enough of an interest in politics to have an opinion on this particular matter. But then, he's no regular teenager, he reminded himself silently.

"McKinley was voted in six months ago but he only went worldwide after Manticore went down. Before that he was creepin' with a desperate need to grow a spine. Suddenly this transgenic thing blows up and he's all over it like a rash."

"So what are you saying? That he was planted?"

Dalton shrugged like it was obvious.

"By who?" Logan wanted to know, part of him thinking the boy crazy for such a random suggestion but the other part knowing he was a fool not to consider it and also recognising that it wasn't quite so impossible.

They fell silent for a moment, not wanting to jump to conclusions.

"Familiars," Max spoke up finally, giving voice to all their thoughts.

"Not that it takes a massive leap of imagination but you got any evidence there Max?" Alec queried.

She shook her head slowly, seeming to be lost in thought.

Alec cocked an eyebrow dubiously, casting a look at Logan who was regarding Max with a frown.

"You alright Max?"

Max looked up, meeting his gaze briefly before addressing everyone.

"It doesn't matter whether he was planted or not. The priority is to spin this another way. We can't fight a war on two fronts; not especially when we're totally outnumbered on the one side, and completely overpowered on the other. White's playin' trasgenics and Ordinaries off against each other. Sounds like a fun game. I want in," she shrugged carelessly.

"Eyes Only can do another hack –" Logan began but Max stopped him before he could finish his sentence.

"No. There's no point. Nobody on the outside even knows Familiars exist. They'll never believe it. They see any amped up behaviour and think transgenic in a second. So I say it's about time White and his goonies meet their adoring public."

"And how do you plan to do that exactly?" Mole asked, ever the one to pour cold water on Max's ideas no matter how early in the stages of development they were.

But the leader in her knew that his unforgiving and what often seemed negative attitude did her the world of good in not letting her get carried away. Max wouldn't mind beating a little faith into the lizard man occasionally, but she appreciated his input however unproductive it sometimes seemed.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I have to say, Kiwi's 'Oi' was what spurred me to update quickly! But also Dazedizzy's comment as to the abrupt ending of chapter 8 which I only noticed after re-reading after she pointed it out. So, thanks to those who reviewed, sorry for the short chapter last time, hopefully this doesn't elicit similiar sentiments! Again, reviews welcome!**

**Chapter 9**

"That's your plan?" Alec sneered, standing up from where he had been leaning against her desk. But Max detected a slither of panic in his voice, which accompanied the glimmer of fear in his hazel green eyes. It was the rare absence of that spark in them which brought the first real shreds of doubt to her mind, before the rationale behind it all came back to her.

"There's no other way to simultaneously play this in our favour and credibly expose them," Max insisted patiently.

"She's right," Logan added, "what's going to make people sit up and take notice more than seeing what they think is superhuman, get ass kicked by something even better?"

Max coughed involuntarily at that.

"There, you see, she's got a little transgenic pride," Alec said, distinctly unimpressed.

"In context of the potential situation," Logan begrudged, shaking his head slightly.

"Well no wonder you had to 'think about it'," Alec continued as if Logan hadn't spoken. He was referring to Max's earlier excuse for adjourning the impromptu meeting without having reached any conclusive plan of action.

"There wasn't any point telling them their beloved leader was going off to get herself beat to a pulp," Max retorted, pulling a face. She was aware that in spite of her stirring speeches and good leadership, she was still mistrusted by a fair few – remnants of their resentment to her escape. But if Alec thought she was taking this mission on herself in the name of redemption, he was wrong. And since he never was, the thought didn't even occur to him.

"What?" came Logan, finally fully clueing in to her great plan.

Max threw him a look usually reserved for Alec, that of a challenge, daring him to tell her it was a stupid idea.

"Well that's about the stupidest thing I ever heard," Alec told her right on cue, almost as if he could read her mind. Truth be told, she had expected the first reaction to be from him but he came through eventually.

"Clearly never heard yourself speak," Max shot back with a smirk. Alec humoured her with an intentionally false grin.

"Max, seriously," Logan interceded, earning himself a reproaching look from Alec who was all set for their verbal sparring. But he directed his quick wit elsewhere.

"Yeah, somehow, I doubt these Familiars are gonna go easy just because you meant for'em to bring it."

Max rolled her eyes.

"No really?"

But straightening up, she addressed them both.

"Look, I'm not gonna send anyone else to do my dirty work –"

"Perks of the job, why else did you rush for Hitler rank?" Alec interrupted, referring to her leadership role.

Max only gave him a dirty look. Alec stared at her.

"You're never gonna get anywhere with that holier-than-thou attitude Maxie," he said carelessly but deep down feeling an odd sort of pride at her unfaltering adherence to principle. Pride? he asked incredulously at the randomness of the thought, especially with regard to Max, before rolling his eyes at himself.

"Logan," Max started, seeing the older man about to voice another protest even though he had done a pretty awful job so far of persuading her not to carry on as she intended.

"Look," she said, eyeing them both, "I am not sending someone else into the lion's den. White doesn't need a reason to kill anyone from Manticore, he'll do it with a smile on his face. But he'll give me a fighting chance, hell, it'll probably amuse him to mess me around before he tries to break my neck."

"Or put a bullet in your brain," Alec added helpfully.

"White's not stupid," Logan told her, knowing he was stating the obvious, "he isn't going to pick a fight with you in public."

Max shrugged.

"Guess I'll have to push a few buttons."

Logan regarded her, willing her to toss this idea.

"Not that I like to stand between you and a good ass kicking especially if it's not mine, but the rest of the guys here see you get taken down and you can kiss goodbye to any semblance of respect they have for you," Alec said finally. But it was more the hard edge in his voice that caught her attention.

"I don't need their respect," she replied forcefully, almost defensively. Respect wasn't really a luxury she could afford anyway. To her mind, it only added to the disappointment if she should let them down and that was something she could live without, call her a coward though one might.

"All sentimentality aside, how else do you think you get them to do what you tell 'em to? Right now, it's only your ten years outside and their respect for the experience you have from that that's got them listenin'."

Max glared at him. Trust him to force her down the hard road, make her make the hard choice. He was always so good at confronting her with the reality she didn't like to think about. Logan never attempted to hide the truth from her but it never sounded so harsh as when Alec lay it to her.

"One way or another," she said after a severe hesitation, fixing him with a look that brooked no arguments. But even if either man had wanted to add something, they couldn't because she had stormed out.

"That went well," Alec said cheerfully, rubbing his hands together, "you don't think so?" he added off Logan's look.

The older man didn't reply as Alec followed him out to the main command area to find Max, Dix, Luke, Mole, and two other X5s huddled around communications.

"Guys –" Alec started but found himself cut off by a short shake of the head from Luke. Alec's brows furrowed as he focussed his hearing on the transceiver Max was listening intently to. A dark look marked her features.

Before he could piece together what he heard the line went dead.

"What was that?" he asked immediately.

Max didn't answer him immediately, a frown crossing her expression as she put the headset down, fully considering all that she had just heard.

**A/N 2: At this point, I have to say updates will take a little bit of a while. I have written two chapter 10s - the one that instinctively followed straight after this chapter, and then the one that felt more natural after going back to it. So, I shall have to decide. If I go with the former, then updates after that will take years because I'm none too sure where on earth it's headed! Let's hope I go with the corrected version!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: My bad. It's been so long since an update I don't even remember what excuse I gave for the delay. It's weird coming to this story having been so involved with Undeserved. I don't think it's half as good as I wanted it to be, but that's because I immersed myself in Infie's Mission fic, Search and Seizure. Let's face it, we all pale in comparison to the gems in that series but I just can't seem to even begin cleaning up the way Inf does. Hopefully you don't hate this despite the long wait. Reviews welcome. The harsher the better! **

**Chapter 10**

"White."

Alec blinked. Coincidence much, he wondered silently to himself.

"He wants a meeting," Max replied evenly, catching his gaze.

"Where? When? Why?"

The questions were instant. Still the soldier, he thought dryly to himself.

"The guy works fast," commented the X5 known as Duke.

"Yeah, guess this big event they're hosting doesn't happen too often," Alec quipped.

"Dix, pull up a map on the military base ten clicks north of Seattle. I want personnel files, building diagnostics, security –"

"Woah, hold your horses Max," Alec interjected, holding his hands out. Unfortunately such a gesture was nothing against the sharp gaze now directed at him.

"Before you go all Lydecker on us, don't you think we should discuss this? For all we know this is just another trap to walk into."

"You mean the fact that this is White we're dealing with? No that hadn't occurred to me at all," she shot back, a little more scathing than he, or she, had anticipated. He chuckled to cover his surprise.

"Hey, I'm just sayin'," he defended, ducking his head in submission of sorts.

"He's right," came Mole's unmistakable growl, "this is a bad idea."

"It's the only opening we've had for the last three weeks. The longer we sit here doing nothing, the smaller our chances get of figuring this out peacefully."

"Peacefully? You mean like how they hit Tank with five thousand volts and beat him black and blue down in Precinct three? And then using live fire on us when we went to bail him out?" Mole challenged.

Max let out a sympathetic breath.

"I'm not saying this isn't a messed up situation. We were built for," she paused, searching for the diplomatic phrase, "aggressive negotiations. And it seems beyond stupid that the one thing we have going for us is the one thing we can't use. But you know the second we start taking people out they're gonna shoot to kill. They're just waiting for a reason," Max said, feeling a need to impress on the reptilian transhuman that she shared his sentiments.

"And White doesn't need one," Alec said, echoing her earlier statement.

"We don't show to that meeting tomorrow and they can justify military action against us. At least if we show up we can say we tried to co-operate."

"Tomorrow?" Alec repeated.

"Seems he didn't leave much room for discussion," Logan remarked, earning himself a disdainful glare from Mole.

"All we can do is know our target. Do our homework and get prepared."

No one said anything as they considered their options. Max hadn't led them wrong so far and they couldn't deny that what she said made sense, as unfair as the situation even was.

"So, you, me and a six man support team?" Alec suggested after a moment.

But Logan interrupted before Max could nod in agreement.

"Maybe I should go."

Seven heads turned to him with a mixture of curiosity and incredulity.

"If White decides to pull a fast one on you maybe having a civilian caught in the cross fire will work as leverage if the media get wind of it."

"You said yourself White's not stupid enough to pick a fight in public," Alec reminded him.

"There's no way you're coming with us Logan," Max assured him.

"I know how to work negotiations –"

Max shook her head emphatically, making it clear she would not waste her time listening to an idea she would gladly pretend she hadn't heard first time round

"Max –"

"No offence man but this is White. Do you really think if this does go sideways, White will let leak the fact that there was an Ordinary in the mix? For all anyone knows, everyone from our end going into that building is bringing the improved DNA," Alec got in on Max's behalf.

Logan kept his eyes on Max, willing her to get on side. But even he knew the idea was laughable the minute it came to him. As if there was any place for him in a room filled with super humans since it was a given White's committee would be Familiarised.

"You said if the media find out?" Max started, holding his gaze.

Logan nodded with a slight frown.

"How about we make sure they do?"

Logan searched her warm brown eyes. But the conversations they used to have in a

look seemed to have gone AWOL on him because all he found was her patiently waiting for him to take her gentle let down.

"I'll get on it," he conceded with a disappointed sigh. Oh how the mighty had fallen.

"Thanks," Max offered appreciatively before turning to Dix, "that intel?"

The monocled nomalie nodded, turning immediately to his computers.

"Mole, I need a van prepped for the team. Luke I want them all wired."

He turned on his heels with a short nod.

"Too bad ours won't make it past the search they'll do at the gates," Max commented ruefully. It would have been helpful knowing everyone's positions. That and somewhat comforting knowing it would all be on record.

"Actually," Luke started, heading over to a set of drawers.

Alec shrugged when Max shot him a quizzical glance.

"Played around with some equipment we found in a building two over from here," Luke explained, offering them a tiny chip each.

"Micro transceivers?" Max wondered, her tone betraying the fact she was clearly impressed Luke had fixed it up rather than had it supplied.

"Neat little hobby you got there buddy," Alec chipped in, examining the device.

"Thanks," the nomalie muttered bashfully.

Despite the new living arrangements, that being all transgenics in Terminal City, the different series still mostly kept to themselves. The Xs were friendly to the transhumans and nomalies when confronted with them but Max and Alec were the only ones who treated the non-human looking transgenics as if they didn't know otherwise. To these two, Luke wasn't a bald communications geek with a slightly off colour pallor. He was a cheerful and helpful individual who happened to be a dab hand at all manner of electronics.

"Right, well we'll get these over to Chief," Max said with a smile and a wave before heading out the building.


End file.
